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Nicolas Brabinsky
In Biggles in Mexico, Nicolas Brabinsky, nicknamed "Ritzy", was the leader of a London gang of diamond robbers who had taken refuge in the village of Eltora in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Ritzy was a Polish refugee in Britain. He had a background of smuggling and gun-running using his own boat in the Mediterranean, although the police could never pin any crimes on him. A year before the events in the book, Ritzy and his gang robbed a jewelery establishment in the City of London. They got away with a parcel of industrial diamonds valued at up to 250 thousand pounds but also shot dead a caretaker. Ritzy had planned his escape: the gang boarded a boat at Chichester and sailed for Tangier. There Ritzy had made arrangements to meet a former contact who would buy the diamonds. However the boat's engine broke down in the Bay of Biscay and they had to be rescued up by a French steamer which took them to New Orleans. From there, Ritzy and his gang made their way to San Francisco where they contacted their Tangiers contact. An appointment was made to meet a diamond buyer named Hugo Schultz. However Ritzy became nervous about the US police and crossed the border into Mexico, settling in the village of Eltora, not far from the US border to await Schultz. The gang soon got into trouble in Eltora. First, David Adamson ("Tricky"), a former gang member, somehow managed to find them, either by chance or design, in the Mexican village. He left (or was thrown out) after staying with them for a month and made his way back to Britain where, probably hoping for lenient treatment, he told Scotland Yard what he knew. Later, in Eltora, another gang member, Carlos Cornelli ("Corny") defied Ritzy's orders to keep a low profile and began romancing Margarita, the fiancee of a wealthy local rancher named José Fonderi. trouble with the local residents was the last thing Ritzy want. Exasperated, Ritzy shot Corny while he was serenading the girl, but ended up getting himself arrested for the killing. Not long after this, Schultz arrived with his confederates to buy the diamonds. But Ritzy had been arrested and taken to the jail at Hermosillo. The remaining gang member, Samuel Brimshawe ("Nifty"), did not know where the diamonds were. Impatient to complete the transaction, Schult and his men somehow managed to visit Ritzy in jail and smuggle him a gun. With this, Ritzy shot a Mexican policeman and escaped. Returning to Eltora, the party next looked for Ritzy's car where the diamonds were hidden. They were frustrated to find that Nifty had hired out the car to Ginger (who wanted to get back to the US to contact Algy). He had broken down and abandoned the car in the desert and had walked back to Eltora. Schultz took Ginger prisoner and forced him to take them to the location of the car. Ritzy's car was found after a long search, and Schultz's men began to dismantle the car to retrieve the diamonds but to Ritzy's consternation, the diamonds were not in the off-side front tyre as he stated. Schultz was losing his patience. He believed Ritzy was lying and would have shot him there and then but Ginger now stepped forward and told them he had to change the tyre after a puncture and had left the original one somewhere in the desert. On hearing this Ritzy decided to break away from Schultz but he was shot dead before he could run very far. His motive for making his escape was a mystery. Perhaps his usefulness to Schultz was over or perhaps he thought he could independently find the missing tyre and improve his bargaining position. Either way he did not get to enjoy the spoils of his crime. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters